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THE 



PRECIOUS GIFT 



BY THE LATE 

REV. THOMAS APPLEGATE, 



r THE VOICE OF SACRED TRIPLES," "THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT," 
"SACRED GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY," ETC. 



FIRST THOUSAND. 



t 







GENEVA, N. Y 

L. W. APPLEGATE, 

1872. 






Entered t according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872 

BY L. W. APPLEGATE, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



The Lt«»**? 



gTEEEOTYPED BT' 

THE CLAREMONT MANUFACTURING CO. 

Printed by .Bound by 

The Claeemont Manue'g Co. The Claeemont Manuf'g Co. 

Claremont, N.H. 



PREFACE 



Few words are necessary in laying before the public 
the second volume of the works of the late Hev. Thomas 
Applegate. 

The warm reception, with which " The Voice of Sacred 
Triples" has been received; and the earnest request of 
many for another such work, has induced us to place 
in the hands of devout readers, a volume which, we feel 
confident to affirm, will be perused with equal profit and 
pleasure. 

Its pages are designed to explain the preciousness of 
that gift which we received from our heavenly Father, 
in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. 

"With the sincere hope that this work may be a com- 
panion for the Christian in the hours of meditation and 
devotion ; and be the means to aid him in his heaven- 
ward journey, we humbly submit its pages to the earnest 

attention of the reader. 

A. 



'CONTESTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Desibe of all Nations 5 



CHAPTER II. 

The Fulness op Time 20 



CHAPTER III. 

The Nativity 36 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Song of Angels 64 



CHAPTER V. 

Christmas-Day 85 



THTE PEEOIOTIS GIFT 

CHAPTER L 

THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 



The evidence of prophecy is the most satisfac- 
tory and convincing — the most direct, interesting 
and impressive, from its germinant and growing 
character, by which it ripens into history, and is 
brought out from the keeping of the past, and 
placed within the limits of each one's personal 
study, observation and experience. If it had no 
other feature than this, it would be amply suffi- 
cient to impart to it all the charm of personal 
discovery, and to produce in the mind a thrill of 
unspeakable delight. The student who grasps it 
finds that he is holding in his hand the last link 
of a chain that has come down to him from the 
earliest ages, and is passing on to the men of that 
generation who will witness the last act of this 



6 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

world's drama, when the angel shall swear by 
Him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall 
be no longer. There is, indeed, in prophecy, such 
an accumulation of proof upon proof — such a 
chain of evidence for thousands of years, and such 
growing strength in the attestations from one 
period to another, that when the subject is fairly 
investigated the conclusion is irresistible — " This 
is the finger of God." The predictions that an- 
nounce the coming of the Messiah belong to the 
most interesting of the group ; and as we contem- 
plate them in the beauty and precision of their 
accomplishment, they lead to the happiest effect. 

The ancients inform us that when Orpheus 
played upon his harp, the wild beasts thronged 
around him as listening spectators. If this were 
literally correct we should suppose that the beasts 
of the forest were only affected by the music while 
they heard it, and that it did not actually change 
their natures and make lions as lambs. The 
music of ancient prediction has sometimes op- 
erated on the minds of men in a similar way. 
There were many who heard with emotion the 
discourses of the Saviour, but their goodness 
was as the morning cloud, and the early dew that 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 7 

passeth away. And so among the numbers that 
listened to the sublime declarations of the proph- 
ets, there were not a few who gave the fondest 
hopes of piety and usefulness, while their subse- 
quent history proved too plainly that they had 
returned again to their obduracy and unbelief. 
Still there were some, as there always have been, 
disposed to speak of the glory of Christ's King- 
dom, and to talk of His power. The pious Jews, 
in the time of Haggai, were anxious to rebuild 
the temple, and have the worship of God speedily 
restored. Bat when the foundations were laid 
they met with discouragement from others, who, 
remembering the magnificence of the former 
temple, wept on thinking how far the second 
would fall short of it. The prophet sought to 
allay their grief by assuring them that, inferior as 
the second temple might appear in comparison 
to Solomon's, yet the glory of this latter house 
should be greater than that of the former. He 
assigned as a reason that it should be graced with 
the presence and teachings of Christ. "The Lord 
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His tem- 
ple: even the Messenger of the Covenant whom 
ye delight in; behold He shall come, saith the 



8 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

Lord of hosts." The time of His advent is thus 
indicated as close at hand. The Saviour was to 
make His appearance in the second temple. x The 
signs of the times told them that they were stand- 
ing on the very threshold of the event. The wait- 
ing Church had already passed over five epochs of 
its journey — the distance from Adam to Noah — 
from Noah to Abraham — from Abraham to Moses 
— from Moses to the temple of Solomon — thence 
to the captivity; and now only one stage more 
remained, the sixth day's journey, and the Shiloh 
would come. 

The epithet applied to the Saviour is as beauti- 
ful as it is expressive — the Desire of all nations. 
This was so literally correct that the men of every 
country seemed to be looking out for Him as a 
benefactor. Everywhere, near and remote, among 
the civilized and the rude, the people were strong- 
ly impressed with a belief that a deliverer was 
about to appear. Among the testimonies of hea- 
then writers is a little poem of Virgil's, written a 
few years only before the birth of Christ, and 
which contains a prophecy that some extraordi- 
nary personage would shortly come, and restore 
peace and plenty, and the manifold blessings of 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 9 

the golden reign. The writer may have been 
indebted, in some degree, to ancient tradition, 
partly founded on the promises of God respecting 
the seed of the woman, traces of which through 
much corruption, had not worn out ; and partly 
to the dispersion of the children of Israel, whose 
imperfect accounts of Scripture, mixed up with 
much that was fabulous, would contribute to keep 
alive the expectation of the desired event. The 
sentiment was certainly derived originally from a 
divine source — the early and oft-repeated promise 
of the Messiah that was to come. 

The prophets, who predicted Him, were so 
thoroughly persuaded of the truth of what they 
wrote, that they were not afraid to risk their 
reputation and standing with their nation upon 
the far off issues. Fifteen hundred years before 
Christ, Moses pledged himself that a prophet-like 
unto himself should arise in Judea; and he es- 
teemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
the treasures of Egypt. At a period still earlier, 
the patriarch Job declared that the Redeemer 
lived and would appear on the earth. He believed 
in Him as One who would justify and eternally 
save him. Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and 



10 THE PRECIOUS GIET. 

he saw it, and was glad. Balaam, in the land of 
Moab, was favored in his blindness with dim 
glimpses of the truth. He saw the vision of the 
Almighty. He fell into a trance, but his eyes were 
open. When a neighboring prince sought him 
for his divination against the power of Israel he 
said, " How shall I curse *whom the Lord hath 
not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord 
hath not defied ?" He then burst forth into the 
noblest strain of poetry, and painted, in words 
that burn, the fortunes of the chosen people, 
"How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy 
tabernacles, Israel. As the valleys are they 
spread forth ; as gardens by the river's side ; as 
the trees of lign-aloes, which the Lord hath plant- 
ed, and as cedar trees beside the waters." The 
wrath of Balak was aroused. He threatened 
where he could not buy. But the menace and the 
bribe were both in vain. "If Balak would give 
me his house full of silver and gold," said he, " I 
cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, 
to do either good or bad, of mine own mind ; but 
what the Lord saith, that will I speak." Then with 
the composure of one who casts himself on God, 
he uttered, as the Lord had taught him, his won- 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 11 

drous prophecy of Christ, "I shall see Him, but 
not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh: 
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Seep-- 
tre shall rise out of Israel." This prophecy was 
given two hundred and fifty years before the Tro- 
jan war — six hundred years before Homer — seven 
centuries before the founding of the Roman Em- 
pire by Romulus; and twelve centuries before 
Alexander the Great. So true is it that one day 
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thou- 
sand years as one day. In the meantime David 
gloried in identifying all his credit, both as a king 
and a poet, with his predictions of the sufferings 
and triumphs of Christ. The sublime Isaiah haz- 
arded all the glory of his immortal genius and 
royal descent in foretelling the little incidents of 
the nativity. The prophet Daniel staked his 
character and reputation upon the exact time of 
Christ's coming. And the prophet Micah, with 
equal candor, announced the place of His birth. 
Some of these prophecies were so minute that they 
mention the very tone of voice in which the Sav- 
iour would conduct His ministry on earth ; and 
the particular kind and age of the animal on 
which He would ride triumphantly into Jerusalem 



12 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

" upon a colt, the foal of an ass." All this is 
the more remarkable because they understood not 
fully, at the time, the things they were writing. 
St. Peter says, " All of them searched diligently 
to discover what or what manner of time, the 
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of 
Christ, and the glory that should follow." They 
knew that God had spoken the subject of their 
communications; and they were willing to stand 
or fall in public estimation upon the result of 
what they stated, touching this long-promised — 
long-looked for, and much desired King. 

The coming of Christ was the desire of all 
nations because He had the disposal of the very 
blessings which all nations need. Do nations need 
light? He is the light of the world. The object 
of His mission was to bless all the nations of the 
earth, by turning them from darkness to light, 
and from the worship of dumb idols to serve the 
living and true God. If we could suppose a nation 
enveloped for ages in Egyptian darkness — dark- 
ness that may be felt, though the people had no 
just conception of light, yet it might be said to be 
their desire, inasmuch as it would improve their 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 13 

condition. There were some among the heathen 
who were willing to acknowledge that they were 
wandering in dubious paths, bewildered and per- 
plexed — thirsting for light and information, and 
knew not how to obtain it. They had fears and 
forebodings, and felt their guilt and weakness, 
but knew not of a remedy. Under the troubles 
of life they had no supernatural support ; and in 
adversity and death they would offer " thousands 
of rams, and rivers of oil, and give the first born 
for their transgression, the fruit of their body for 
the sin of their soul." Do nations need strength ? 
The name of the Lord is a strong tower, into 
which the righteous run and are safe. He is a 
stronghold for the prisoners of hope. All power 
belongs to Him in heaven and in earth. Do 
nations need riches ? His riches are unsearchable 
— durable riches and righteousness. Do nations 
need friends? He is a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother. Do nations applaud benevolence? 
His love passeth knowledge. " He delivers the 
needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that 
hath no helper." He comprises in Himself all 
that the exigencies of man can require, in every 
country and clime, and is the Desire of all na- 



14 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

tions, just as a physician, able and willing to cure 
all diseases, is the desire of all patients. 

The coming of Christ was attended with signs 
and wonders. The holy purpose was fulfilled, " I 
will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, 
and the dry land. I will shake all nations." The 
scene was one of stupendous magnificence and 
grandeur that ranged through all the powers of 
creation, and was fraught with overwhelming re- 
sults to our future destiny. As no trivial matter 
could have induced the Son of the Highest to 
have undertaken such an embassy, it seemed be- 
fitting that the magnitude of His mission should 
be marked with phenomena of more than ordi- 
nary occurrence. When the law was given on 
Sinai, the mountain shook to its base. Thunder- 
ings and lightnings, and thick darkness filled the 
air. The people trembled at the sight, and Moses 
said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." When 
Israel came out of Egypt, a passage was made 
through the sea by the waters dividing, and the 
Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east 
wind all that night, and made the sea dry land. 
When the migratory host were in the wilderness, 
streams were brought out of the rock by the rod 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 15 

of Moses ; manna was rained down from heaven 
by a constant miracle, and a cloudy, fiery pillar 
directed their journeys. So when the Day-spring 
from on High visited us, the shadows of the Jew- 
ish Dispensation fled — the apparatus of the old 
economy was superceded — the forms of heathen 
worship shrunk from their accustomed grandeur 
— the priests grew pale — the fires upon the altars 
flickered — the very gods upon Olympus shivered 
and were dismayed. The little town of Bethle- 
hem became flushed with life and excitement — 
the scene of stir and animation. The Inn was 
crowded with tax-payers, drawn from the adjacent 
country by the edict of Augustus Csesar; and the 
infant Jesus made His appearance in a stable, 
wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. 
The midnight sky is radiant with more than 
earthly light. The music of celestial songs falls 
upon the ear. There is a fluttering of angels' 
wings, and the air is fragrant with angels' breath. 
The wise men upon the Persian hills are watching 
the stars. They are looking out for Balaam's star 
to rise. They scan with keenest search the radiant 
maze. They have made sure of every speck of 
light, though ever so small. They have measured 



16 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

every space of blue, however scant. Now, there 
gleams on their vision a stranger orb. A new 
light kindles in the heavens. The star of Beth- 
lehem shines. It travels westward towards Judea. 
Its brilliancy gives presage to some new and glo- 
rious dynasty. The Magi rise in haste and pre- 
pare for their journey. They store themselves 
with royal gifts of purest gold. They fill their 
censers with the finest flakes of Arabian frankin- 
cense. They provide as a part of their freight a 
suitable quantity of Abyssinian myrrh. They start 
upon their search, and the star precedes them to 
Jerusalem. They ask in that Metropolis, "Where 
is He that is born king of the Jews ? for we have 
seen His star in the east, and are come to worship 
Him." The great mass of the people were unable 
to answer the question, but the chief priests and 
scribes informed them, from the sacred roll, " In 
Bethlehem of Judea." The star that disappeared 
during their continuance in the city, now resumed 
its place — conducted the visitors to Bethlehem, 
and dropped so low as to signalize the house 
where the young child was. The star pointed out 
the Star. The starry orb showed " the Eoot and 
Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star." 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. 17 

*' Sceptre and Star Divine, Who in Thy inmost shrine 
Hast made us worshippers, claim Thine own. 
More than Thy seers we know — 
teach our love to grow up to Thy heavenly light." 

The star dies out above that humble dwelling 
just as the Magi enter it; and opening their treas- 
ures, they present unto the Holy Jesus gifts, gold, 
frankincense and myrrh. It was the custom of 
the country to show external honor to illustrious 
personages ; and this they manifested by the rich- 
est offerings it was in their power to make. They 
were loyal men, whose devout affections were deep 
enough, and whose love and joy, and gratitude 
were intense enough to prompt this royal, tangible, 
and substantial offering of their sincere devotion. 

Christ came to reign king in Zion, and the 
establishment of His kingdom demanded the com- 
plete overthrow of whatever was opposed to it. 
The Jews had been the most favored people under 
heaven, to whom pertained the adoption, and the 
glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the 
law, and the service of God, and the promises. 
But they rejected Christ, and filled up the measure 
of their iniquity by putting Him to death. Often 
would He have gathered them together as a hen 
fathereth her chickens under her wings, but they 



18 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

would not. They preferred to be naked and des- 
titute, rather than to be covered with His feathers. 
Their house was therefore to be left unto them 
destitute. The Romans destroyed their city and 
temple, and made it a capital crime for a Jew to 
set his foot in Jerusalem. Their banishment from 
Judea was only the prelude to their expulsion from 
city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom, until 
in the wide world they could find no rest for the 
soles of their feet. But of all surprising phenomena 
there is perhaps none so wonderful as their main- 
taining through so many long centuries their dis- 
tinguished features. That they should be dispersed 
into all nations, and yet amalgamate with none; 
that they should be everywhere found, and yet be 
everywhere the same; that they should submit 
themselves to all forms of government, and adopt 
all varieties of customs, and yet retain all their 
national characteristics is inexplicable, except as 
the fulfilment of prophecy. The separate condi- 
tion of the Jews is a living miracle of the truth — 
a standing memento of their guilt in rejecting 
the promised Saviour. Nor is the continued in- 
fidelity of the Jews a jot less remarkable. "What- 
ever probability there was that they would reject 



THE DESIRE OP ALL NATIONS. 19 

Christianity on its first publication, it was a proba- 
bility that diminished with every miracle that was 
wrought; and every rolling year, as it brought. no 
other Messiah, only swelled the demonstration 
that Jesus was the Christ. Their own prophecies 
had clearly determined that Christ would come 
while the second temple was standing and at the 
close of the seventy weeks from the termination 
of the Babylonish captivity. But when the second 
temple was demolished, and the seventy weeks,- on 
every possible computation, had long ago expired, 
we should have supposed that they would have 
been compelled to admit either that Christ was the 
long promised Messiah, or that their expectation 
was vain. There seemed no alternative if they 
rejected Jesus of Nazareth, but the rejection of 
their own scriptures. 

Never therefore should we meet a Jew, without 
feeling that we meet the strongest witness for the 
truth of our holy religion. The exile of the race, 
for their iniquity, agreeably to the declarations of 
our Lord, eighteen hundred years ago, and their 
continued disappointment of a deliverer, is one of 
the noblest proofs that, the desire of all nations 
has come, and that they need not look for another. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FULNESS OF TIME. 



Four thousand years rolled away between the 
bestowment of the promise to our first parents in 
Eden that the seed of the woman should bruise 
the serpent's head, and its actual fulfilment. And 
if we ask the question, "Why was Christ born into 
the world at so late a date? Why was not Chris- 
tianity introduced at once ? the most appropriate 
answer is, Christ came thus late that scoffers 
might find no excuse for their unbelief. The 
blessing was delayed so long because the world 
was not fitted by its population and its general 
state, to receive it earlier. There was as much 
propriety in this delay, as there is in not allowing 
a minor to come into the full possession of the 
property to which he is an heir. " The heir," 
said the Apostle, "differeth nothing from a ser- 
vant as long as he is a child, though he be Lord 
of all, but is under tutors and governors until the 
time appointed of the Father." " Even so we, 



THE FULNESS OE TIME. 21 

when we were children, were in bondage under 
the elements of the world." " But when the ful- 
ness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem 
them that were under the law, that we might re- 
ceive the adoption of sons." The intimation here 
given is, that it would be as unwise for God to 
have sent His Son into the world at an earlier 
period, as it would be to allow a minor to become 
the master of his property before he becomes 
of age. 

It is not always easy to discover the reasons that 
actuate the Divine mind, though we may be fully 
assured they are such as to justify the course He 
adopts in the administration of His affairs. Could 
we see, as He does, the end from the beginning, 
we should acknowledge readily the rectitude of 
His procedure, and exclaim, " Just and true are thy 
ways, Thou king of saints." 

If Christ had come during the antediluvian age, 
or at the time of the flood, the donation of such an 
unspeakable gift, at that period of the world's his- 
tory, would have been most unsuitable. It does 
not appear that there was any one then living 
capable of presenting the account of it in such a 



22 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

manner as to interest the people of all subsequent 
times. "Whoever had taken upon himself the 
office of historiographer would not probably have 
been very successful in benefitting mankind at 
large. Had he written to suit us, upon whom 
the ends of the world are come, the general style 
of the composition would have been ill adapted 
to his own contemporaries. And had he written 
so as to suit them, the narrative would have been 
of little practical service to us. But the Saviour, 
by not .appearing in the world till civilization and 
letters had become more common, afforded every 
facility to men to herald and announce His mis- 
sion ; to examine His claims, and to discover how 
the Old Testament writings are fulfilled in those 
of the New. 

If the Saviour had made His appearance in 
the interim, between the Flood and the time of 
Moses, the population of the globe was then com- 
paratively small. There would have been but few 
to 83e Him, and but very few to appreciate Him. . 
And when we consider* the sublime doctrines 
which He taught, the salutary precepts which He 
delivered, the miracles which He performed, and 
His spotless life, we say, and say justly, there was 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 23 

wisdom in the plan of withholding the bestow- 
nient of such a blessing from the few, when it 
was intended to meet the wants of our race in 
every region of the globe. > . 

The time from Moses to the Prophets would 
have been too soon. The people were not then 
prepared for the event. The Jews were not suffi- 
ciently informed of the grounds of salvation. 
They had but just emerged from Egypt, with all 
the associations of idolatry fresh in their minds, 
It was, therefore, befitting the dignity and grand- 
eur of the Messiah, that His coming should be 
deferred, and that the types and shadows should 
still retain their significancy, to light up the 
darkness of night, till the day-star should arise in 
their hearts. 

The period of the four great monarchies would 
have been equally inappropriate. The thoughts 
and passions of men were too much absorbed in 
warfare, to gain for the religion of Christ any 
thing like an ascendency over the public mind. 
If it should have happened to triumph, persons 
would not have been wanting to affirm that Chris- 
tianity was the invention of the Nirnrods and the 
Kcbuchadnezzars to maintain the views of des* 



24 . THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

potic government and keep the people in subjec- 
tion. But to place the matter beyond the power 
of the enemy, God purposely delayed the coming 
of His Son until the Augustan age, when the 
blessings of peace, civilization and philosophy 
were abundantly diffused. Eor were the people 
losers by the delay. Though they had not the 
same amount of light and information that subse- 
quent generations enjoyed, yet they had the same 
unqualified promise, that whoever looked by 
faith to the Lamb of God, would assuredly be 
saved. They knew that the atonement which 
Cheist would offer, would avail alike for the sins 
committed under the first covenant, and under 
the second — that penitents were all pardoned and 
renewed, and finally admitted into heaven upon 
trust or sufferance on the ground of faith in Him, 
who was to come in due time. 

Due time and fulness of time are synonymous, 
and refer to the period when Csesar Augustus 
lived. That was the fulness of time most em- 
phatically; and the best adapted for introducing 
the Saviour and His Gospel. The minds of men 
were then more at rest, and better prepared to 
detect Him, if He had been an impostor. Both 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 25 

Jews and Gentiles had political motives to urge 
them to the strictest vigilance. The Jews were 
under the Roman yoke, and looked to the Messiah 
as their deliverer. He was a bright star in their 
horizon, and they were disposed to scrutinize His 
character with the nicest accuracy. The heads of 
the Roman Government were also very jealous of 
losing any portion of their influence, and they 
would, consequently, investigate His authority 
with equal diligence. The two parties had been 
ably disciplined and matured for the task by the 
system of argumentation that had been intro- 
duced. The policy they pursued was to doubt 
and dispute every thing they met with, and to 
admit nothing without proof. Christianity, there- 
fore, threw down the gauntlet, and challenged the 
closest research. The collisions and disputes that 
ensued only served to rub the diadem into bright- 
ness, and to manifest to all that Christ was the 
only begotten Son of God. 

Men's minds, at the time of our Lord's Advent, 
were much perplexed in reference to the doctrine 
of immortality. The idea was almost expunged 
from the general creed. The practice of suicide 
had become exceedingly popular. Still, the love 



26 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

of life in the majority was too ardent to allow of 
its being readily given up. Just at that particular 
juncture, when information was so much needed, 
Christ came, and brought life and immortality 
to light. He came, a light to enlighten the Gen- 
tiles, and the glory of His people Israel. The 
darkness that brooded over the sepulchre He 
instantly dissipated, and caused to shine into it 
the bright beams of day. Standing upon the 
portals of the tomb, and addressing Himself to 
the promiscuous throng which the majesty and 
loveliness of His person drew around Him, He 
could exclaim, with an emphasis which belonged 
to no earthly being, " I am the Resurrection and 
the Life." "If a man keep My sayings, he "shall 
never see death." This was the boon for which 
they had so ardently panted. This put them in 
possession of a treasure that revealed the highest 
source of enjoyment for the life that now is, and 
for that which is to come. At no previous period 
could these tidings have been promulgated so 
successfully. There was no time but that which 
St. Paul calls the fulness of time, when the state 
of the nations afforded such numerous facilities. 
Little did the Romans think, when they con- 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 27 

structed their Appian ways, and opened up new- 
roads, that they were forming paths for the Gos- 
pel to track its way over the then known world. 
Little did they suppose, when they reduced their 
language to rale, that they were multiplying the 
means of defrauding their own temples, and de- 
throning their own gods. 

The Greek language was now generally spoken, 
and thus constituted an appropriate vehicle to 
embody and express the glorious gospel of the 
Blessed God. This would seem to be one reason 
why the time of Christ's coming was so long 
postponed. The advent was unquestionably de- 
layed, that there might be prepared the means. for 
transmitting the glad tidings of salvation in the 
most expressive and permanent shape. The lan- 
guage in which the New Testament truths were 
to be preached had now become the language of 
so many cultivated nations, that a truth spoken 
in Greek would find an echo everywhere, while 
the same truth uttered in Hebrew, would scarcely 
have been understood beyond the borders of Ju- 
dea. It was therefore a special Providence in 
anticipation of the Advent, that one language, and 
that the noblest and the grandest, should very 



28 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

much, dominate and prevail. Hence, the word 
of salvation went forth as the day breaks with 
gradually increasing light, and where it poured 
its meridian splendor, it eclipsed all other lights 
in its surpassing brightness. It grew as the mus- 
tard seed, which, when sown, is the least of all 
seeds, and when grown is the greatest of all herbs. 
It rose as the fountain rises, a spring of living 
water, swelling into a river, "the streams whereof 
make glad the city of God." Its voice is more 
powerful than thunder ; and its echo softer than 
the summer breeze. It would seem as though 
the universe was purposely constructed to repeat 
its sound. It was whispered in the East, and 
rolled round to the West. It was repeated in the 
West and rolls back to the East. It is gentle and 
fructifying as a spring shower. It is all-embrac- 
ing, vivifying and enlightening as the sun. It is 
all-glorious and eternal as the heaven to which it 
leads. 

There was another very remarkable feature 
that characterized the fulness of time, and which 
much facilitated the labors of the ambassadors of 
Christ — the political consolidation of nations. 
Two or three hundred years previously the nations 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 29 

of the earth were in such a state of internal antag- 
onism, that an inhabitant of one country could not 
cross over the frontiers, and sojourn even for a 
short time in another. But owing to the con- 
quests of Alexander, and afterwards of the Ca3- 
sars, the whole civilized world became consoli- 
dated into one empire ; and an appeal to Csesar 
was a sufficient protection in almost every capital 
and village of the habitable globe. This was the 
result of the movements and changes of four 
thousand years ; the stirring of the waters, prior 
to the descent of the angel, to impregnate them 
with the elements of permanent and universal 
health. And when the world was thus prepared 
for the Advent — when the people were at peace — 
when a language had been formed fitted to convey 
the truths of the Gospel — when the nations of the 
earth had become consolidated and made accessi- 
ble to the feet of them that bring glad tidings of 
great joy; then Chkist came — then the Sun of 
Eighteousness arose — then the beginning of the 
Gospel of the Son of God was heard — the monop- 
oly of a few became the privilege and the right 
of all — the national cistern became a world-wide 
fountain — the lamp of Jerusalem was exchanged 



30 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

for the bright sun in the sky, for the benefit of the 
whole race. 

The manner of the Incarnation added to our 
dignity and glory. God sent forth His Son, made 
of a woman. There is a peculiarity in the expres- 
sion made of a woman, which does not agree with 
our ordinary mode of speaking. It is a truth that 
stands out by itself, applying only to Christ. More 
frequently it is said born of a woman. We under- 
stand, in either sense, that He took upon Himself 
our nature,, and became bone of our bone and 
flesh of our flesh. " The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us." "Because the children were 
partakers of flesh and blood, He also partook part 
of the same." It behoved Him in all things to be 
made like unto His brethren, that He might be a 
merciful and faithful High Priest in all things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the 
sins of the people. It was not that Christ was 
merely the brother of every man that constituted 
the excellency of the Incarnation. A man and his 
brother are walled off and separated by their per- 
sonality. What is done by the one cannot prop- 
erly be felt as the action of the other. But Christ 
by becoming human as well as divine took as it 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 31 

were a part of every man — tied Himself up, if we 
may so speak, by a most sensitive fibre to every 
member of the human family. Along those un- 
numbered threads of endearment and sympathy 
there came traveling the evil deeds and evil 
thoughts of an evil and rebellious seed. Loudly 
they knocked at His heart, and asked for ven- 
geance, and thus the wondrous result was brought 
about, that He who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in His mouth, felt the sins that we have 
committed, was pierced and torn by them, and 
suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might 
bring us to God. To accomplish this mighty task, 
the Son of the Highest condescended to present 
Himself in our world as a feeble infant. This 
shows that the errand on which He came, was one 
of pure, disinterested benevolence and mercy, and 
that God sent not His Son into the world to con- 
demn the world, but that the world through Him 
might be saved. He came not as a man of war 
arrayed in the attributes of terror, but as a helpless 
babe, in humble life, wrapped in swaddling clothes 
and lying in a manger. Had He been born in a 
palace, or dwelt among the rich and the great, the 
poor might have feared to approach Him. But 



32 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

by taking the lowest scale in society, the poorest 
and most dejected of men may have hope for 
acceptance. A description of the person of Jesus, 
as He appeared in the discharge of His ministry, 
is preserved in an ancient manuscript, that bears 
the name of Publius Latilus, President to the 
Senate of Rome ; and it is remarkably interesting 
as showing a beautiful coincidence between the 
views of the writer, and the testimony of Holy 
Scripture. " There lives," says he, " at this time 
in Judea a man of singular character whose name 
is Jesus Christ. The Barbarians esteem Him as 
a prophet, and His followers adore Him as the 
immediate offspring of the immortal God. He is 
endowed with such unparalleled virtues as to call 
back the dead from their graves, and to heal every 
kind of disease with a word or a touch. His per- 
son is tall and elegantly shaped, His aspects 
amiable and reverent, His hair flows in those 
beauteous shades which no colors can match, fall- 
ing in graceful curls below His ears, agreeably 
crouching upon His shoulders, and parting upon 
the crown of His head. His dress is of the sect of 
the Nazarites. His forehead is smooth and large. 
His cheek is without spot save that of a lovely 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 33 

red. His nose and mouth are formed with ex- 
quisite symmetry. His beard is thick and suitable 
to the hair of His head, reaching a little below 
His chin, and parting in the middle like a fold. 
His eyes are bright, clear, and serene. He re- 
bukes with mildness and writes with the most 
tender and persuasive language. His whole 
address, whether in word or deed, is elegant, 
grave, and strictly characteristic of so exalted a 
being. No man has seen Him laugh, but the 
whole world has seen Him weep frequently, and 
so persuasive are his tears that the whole multi- 
tude cannot withhold their tears from joining 
in sympathy with Him. He is very modest, 
temperate, and wise. In short whatever this 
phenomenon may turn out to be in the end, He 
seems at present to be a man of excellent and 
divine perfection, every way surpassing the child- 
ren of men." Thus far we have a delineation of 
the Saviour, both able, and beautiful, from a 
heathen contemporary. "We are thankful for the 
portraiture, as corroborative of sacred history, 
that represents Him in His lovliness, as the chief 
among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely. 
Notice we now the benefits of Christ's incarna- 



34 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

tion. They are two fold — redemption and adop- 
tion. These two cardinal blessings of onr holy 
religion go hand in hand. Without the former, 
the latter could never be realized but as a thing 
of nought. Neither of them is intended to re- 
Lease us from the obligations of the law, but from 
the penalty which it denounces. And Christ hath 
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having 
been made a curse for us. Christ is the end of 
the law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth. Do we then make void the law through 
faith ? God forbid. Yea we establish the law. 
The law is supremely excellent, the transcript of 
the Divine mind cannot be obeyed too much, but 
to Christ only must we look for everlasting salva- 
tion. We have no hope for time or for eternity 
which is not grounded upon the merits alone of 
that Saviour who offered Himself once for all, 
without money and without price, the guilty and 
the lost. But if we can say with our whole heart, 
" God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ," then is He made of 
God unto us wisdom and righteousness, and 
san education and redemption — then are we the 
adopted members of His family, children of Gor 



THE FULNESS OF TIME. 35 

through faith, and if children then heirs, heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Chirst — the Saviour has 
taken us by the hand, that He might lead us into 
green pastures, and by the still waters — the dark 
cloud of offended justice shall no more veil the 
heavens that hang over us, hut the warm beams 
of the Sun of righteousness, the gladdening ema- 
nations which issue from the Most High shall flow 
copiously upon our souls, touching the springs of 
happiness and quickening the seeds of immortality 
within us. Thus shall we realize the enjoyment 
of a present salvation, and the dawning of a day 
everlasting. The night of sin and imperfection, 
of trial and obscurity, is already far spent, and the 
day is at hand. The bright beams of morning 
irradiate the tops of the distant hills, inviting us 
to gird up the loins of our minds, and to be sober, 
and hope unto the end for the grace that shall be 
brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
There, a glorious immortality is reserved for 
adopted sons. Long after it as your final and 
ultimate portion which sin has never sullied, which 
sorrow shall never corrode, and which your heav- 
enly Father will give you as your- inheritance 
forever. Anticipate it as your rest, peaceful and 



36 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

refreshing after the labors of the day. Look 
forward to it as your home, where in company 
-with God and Christ, and angels and all the 
Redeemed, you will dwell in perfect friendship 
and go no more out. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NATIVITY. 



"When Christ was born in Bethlehem, 
'Twas night, but seemed the noon of day ; 

The stars who&e light was pure and bright, 
Shone with unwavering ray." 

The anniversary of the Nativity brings to us 
thoughts "of a precious Saviour; and angels and 
men rejoice together in the glad history of His 
love. This sacred festival of the Church is the 
holiday season of the world, and pleasant mem- 
ories are thus blended with joyous Christian feel- 
ings. Songs, and carols, and "blazing hearths, 
and happy greetings usher in the day, and cause 



THE NATIVITY. &7 

our life to be as merry as a marriage peal 
Schools are dismissed, and stores are closed. 
And amid houses bright with gifts, and churches 
fresh with evergreen, devout affection breaks out 
in songs of praise, " Hosannah, blessed be the 
King of Israel that cometh in the name of the 
Lord." 

It matters not that some insinuate their doubts 
whether the 25th of December be really the day 
when Christ was born. It is the day which Chris- 
tians, from a very early period, have chosen to 
observe as such, and it answers every purpose 
which any other day could answer in the celebra- 
tion of this great event. It unites upon itself, 
through a long observance, the hearts of the faith- 
ful all over the world, and comes down to us 
linked with such sunny memories of social gath- 
erings and blessed services that it would be a 
shock to the sensibilities of Christendom not to 
improve the occasion for the glory of God, and 
the good of the soul. Let any devout mind give 
itself up on this day to meditating upon the in- 
carnate Saviour, and we believe he will yield to 
the impulse of falling on his knees with the burst 
of grateful acknowledgment, " Thanks be unto 



38 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

God for His unspeakable gift." So that if it 
could be shown that for eighteen centuries Chris- 
tians have mistaken the day, and that we know 
not the precise time when the Son of God came 
down from the far heavens to this sin-stricken 
earth, still it would be unreasonable and absurd 
not to follow this goodly custom of the Church 
which has preserved for us the fact that " Unto us 
is born a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." 

We hail the festival with cheerful hearts, greet- 
ing with smiles and wishes for happiness, the old 
and young. We decorate our temples with fes- 
toons, and stars, and Scriptural mottoes, in token 
of joy aad gladness, and make them vocal with 
Te Deums in the sweet melody of song. Christ- 
mas speaks of Christ in loving accents. It de- 
clares that the great object for which He came 
into the world was to save sinners. The Church 
in her recognition of so fundamental a doctrine 
says that " God's blessed Sox was manifested that 
He might destroy the works of the devil, and make 
us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life." She 
also adds, that " God has given Him to be unto us 
ia sacrifice for sin, and an ensample of godly life. 
These were the motives that prompted Him to 



THE NATIVITY. 39 

undertake His earthward mission, and to live, 
labor, and die for a race of offenders. The inspired 
writers speak of His advent as a mystery. It is 
so referred to in our admirable Litany — ".By the 
mystery of Thy holy incarnation — By thy holy 
nativity and circumcision." The children of faith 
must not pry into hidden secrets, but rejoice in 
the Advent, till the Lokd shall lift the veil with 
His own hands, and exhibit the inscrutable mys- 
teries of that wondrous affair as subjects of the 
clearest vision. 

The birth of a person is always understood to 
signify his beginning or introduction into the land 
of life and among the living. It is the origin of a 
career of consciousness of which he had no exist- 
ence anterior to the present. No matter what the 
doctrine of Pythagoras affirms about the pre-ex- 
istence of spirit, and the transmigration of souls, 
no man could ever truthfully say that he had 
another life before this — no man, whether China- 
man or not, much as he may believe the absurdity, 
can presume to instruct us in the scenes and inci- 
dents that transpired in connection with other 
stages of His bein ? in the depths of a dateless age. 
Christ only could speak of a life that He had 



40 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

spent elsewhere. The Son of the Eternal could 
say, " I came out from God" — " I came forth from 
the Father, and am come into the world" — " I 
leave the world, and go to the Father." "Be- 
fore Abraham was I am. Your father Abraham 
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was 
glad." Yea, so confidently did he speak of the 
blissful recollections of His pre-existent state that, 
lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "And 2iow, 
Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, 
with the glory which I had with Thee before the 
world was." These affirmations of divinity from 
His own lips are in beautiful harmony with the 
testimony of the New Testament writers. They 
were intimately acquainted with ail the circum- 
stances of His birth. They knew the predictions ; 
and they believed His " goings forth were of old, 
from everlasting." They accordingly looked 
upon His assumption of our nature simply in the 
light of an arrival from another sphere — an ad- 
vent — an incarnation — a mere incident in an 
existence that had no beginning. And while 
they surrendered to Him the supremacy of their 
affections, to which they conceived He was justly j 
entitled, they congratulated the world on receiv- 



THE NATIVITY. 41 

ing so illustrious a visitor, and our humanity as 
enshrining so celestial an occupant. St. John in 
an allusion to His eternity says, " In the begin- 
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God : and the Word was made 
■flesh and dwelt among us." And the Apostle 
Paul tells us that " God, who, at sundry times, 
and in divers manners, spake in times past unto 
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these latter 
days spoken unto us by His Son : who, being in 
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God : but made Himself of no reputa- 
tion, and took upon Him the form of a servant, 
and was made in the likeness of men — whose are 
the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh 
Crhist came, who is over all, God blessed for- 
ever." Passages ot this complexion have a pecul- 
iar charm thrown around them, proving as they 
do most conclusively that Christ was worshipped 
from eternity as God, before He "humbled Him- 
self to be born of a virgin." 

The birth of Jesus Christ formed the climax of 
a series of manifestations that have been vouch- 
safed under preceding economies. The first 
promise of the Saviour was given under the 



42 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

identical tree where our first parents fell; and sub- 
sequent manifestations kept alive the expectation 
of the event till it was fully realized. 'WTien 
Abraham was at Mamre, gray with the snows of 
a hundred years, sitting on the threshold of his 
Arab tent, and enjoying the fresh breeze astir, he 
espied three men approaching him, two of them 
were angels, and the third was the Son of God. 
The Apostle commenting on the event, says, "Be 
not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some have 
thereby entertained angels unawares." The dis- 
tinguished visitors partook of the patriarch's 
friendly cheer, and resumed their journey. Abra- 
ham accompanied them to an eminence from 
which they obtained a view of the cities of Sodom 
and Gromorrah. And pointing to those silent 
cities among the mountains as they lay embedded 
in a paradise of luxuriant verdure, the An ^el of 
the Covenant informed him that this scene, so fair 
and lovely, was doomed to become the theatre 
of a most signal destruction on account of the 
wickedness of the people. The venerable patri- 
arch, falling at the feet of the illustrious speaker, 
earnestly interceded for the guilty inhabitants till 
he hoped he had won a reprieve. And that divine 



THE NATIVITY. . 43 

personage with whom he pleaded was Jesus 
Christ, who afterwards enunciated the solemn 
truth, "RTo man hath seen God at any time; the 
only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the 
Father, He hath declared Him." 

The leaves of time opened up another manifest- 
ation which occured one memorable night in tbe 
history of Jacob. Between him and Esau there 
existed a long-standing grudge about the birth- 
right: and tidings had reached him that his 
offended brother was coming against him on the 
morrow with four hundred armed men. The 
patriarch, dejected and anxious, betook himself in 
his extremity to the God of Bethel, and felt in the 
ardor of his devotion a mysterious conflict as if a 
person were wrestling with him, " twisting, thrust- 
ing and straining, and striving to hurl him to the 
ground." The assault came from no enemy. His 
opponent was no other than the second person in 
the adorable Trinity ; " the everlasting Son of the 
Father." "And Jacob called the name of the 
place Peniel — the face of God : for he said, I have 
seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." 
Thenceforth his name was no more called Jacob. 



44 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

but Israel, because as a prince he had power with 
God, and with man, and had prevailed. 

The Israelites, in the process of events, became 
bondmen in the land of Egypt, and the Lord re- 
vealed Himself to Moses at Horeb in a burning 
bush. It was a most singular phenomenon, out- 
shining in brightness the blaze of noon, and yet 
occasioning no consumption of the leaves and 
branches. These were reflected through the 
excellent glory with beautiful transparency. And 
when the astonished Hebrew turned aside to see 
this great sight, it became vocal with instruction, 
and said, "Draw not nigh — put off thy shoes from 
thy feet : for the place whereon thou standest is 
holy ground." And the voice went on to add, 
" I am the God of thy Father — the God of Abra- 
ham — the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 
But for the assurance of the voice Moses might 
have cod eluded that the whole exhibition was 
simply the revelation of an angel : now he had 
indisputable testimony that it was Jehovah Jesus, 
who appeared to his progenitors — the same august 
p&rsonage who afterwards conducted the exodus 
by a pillar of cloud by day, and fire by night — the 



THE NATIVITY. 45 

same who supplied, miraculously, the migratory 
hosts with manna from the skies and water from 
the rock, and of whom it is said, " They did all 
eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the 
same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spir- 
itual Eock that followed them ; and that Eock was 
Christ" — the same whose voice shook the earth 
when the mountain of Sinai trembled to its base, 
and " now He hath promised — saying, yet once 
more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven : 
I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the 
sea, and the dry land ; and I will shake all nations, 
and the desire of all nations shall come." 

The Lord God, who thus bowed the heavens to 
talk with our ancient fathers, was indeed the 
long-promised, long-looked for Messiah. The glo- 
rious being with whom Enoch walked in the age 
of the antediluvians was the predicted Saviour 
with whom the disciples walked on the road to 
Emmaus. He who said to Moses, " Certainly I will 
be with thee," was the same sympathizing friend 
who said to the Apostles, " Lo I am with you 
always." The magnificent vision of the Divine 
glory, which Isaiah saw, exhibiting Jehovah as 
" high and lifted up," and whose " train filled the 



46 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

temple," while seraphs veiled their faces with 
their wings, and made the temple vibrate with 
their hymns of rapture, was a vision of the glory 
of Christ. The Son of man whom Nebuchadnez- 
zar king of Babylon saw walking with the three 
Hebrew youths in the midst of the burning fiery 
furnace, was the same Son of man who came to 
seek and to save them that are lost. The Ancient 
of Days that appeared to Daniel was the infant 
of Days that was born in a stable at Bethlehem. 
The manifestations were made susceptible of dif- 
ferent modifications to suit different ages, but we 
can recognize, all through, the self-same Revealer 
of the Father, the self-same prophet of the 
Church — the self-same Saviour of our race — who 
is " Christ the Lord." 

The birth of Jesus Christ came through a suc- 
cession of persons who formed a consecutive line 
of genealogical descent. .Before the flood the 
prediction of Christ's advent was general and in- 
definite. There was nothing to indicate either 
the time or the place. The only thing absolutely 
certain in the matter was the fulfilment of the 
promise that the Deliverer should come. But, as 
centuries rolled along, it seemed good to the 



THE NATIVITY. 47 

Divine Being to institute a series of limitations, 
and to make the promise more restricted and pre- 
cise. Agreeably with this narrowing process the 
Lord fixed upon Abraham, of Ur of the Chaldees, 
and pronounced him the chosen progenitor of the 
Messiah. The first of an illustrious line, he was 
to be separated from all the rest of the world to 
serve God in sincerity and in truth. There were 
born to him two sons, and the blessing was to 
flow through Isaac the younger. The land of 
Canaan was also given into his possession as a 
cradle for the approaching nativity. Over the 
family and the country thus selected the care of a 
special providence was exercised with unremitting 
attention, anticipating every circumstance, and 
rendering the most untoward events subservient 
to incarnate Deity. The history of the twelve 
sons of Jacob, though unpromising for a time, 
was made to form a conspicuous part in the 
arrangement, as there was one of that number 
to whom was awarded the honor of being a link 
in the chain of the lineage of Christ. The dying 
patriarch predicted that in Judah's line should 
the Shiloh come. " The sceptre shall not depart 
from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, 



48 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

until Shiloh come ; and unto Him shall the gath- 
ering of the people be." Ages passed on, and the 
wandering tribes found themselves crossing the 
Jordan to take possession of the land. They were 
like the waves of the sea for multitude, or, as 
Balaam expresses it, "like valleys spread forth; 
as gardens by the river's side; as the trees of iign- 
aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar 
trees beside the waters." The Lord who rode 
upon the heavens in their help was eminently 
among them, enabling them to triumph in every 
place, and causing squadrons of their enemies to 
melt before them like wax, till the chosen coun- 
try literally swarmed with the chosen race. 

During one of the subsequent generations the 
land of Israel was visited with a sore famine, and 
many of the people were induced to leave the 
place of their birth, to sojourn in foreign coun- 
tries. Among others, Elimelech and his wife 
Naomi removed with their family to Moab. The 
inspired narrative informs us that " he went out 
full," but soon died, leaving a widow and two 
sons in a strange land. The sons took to them- 
selves wives of the women of Moab, and settled 
in that country. This was an open violation of 



THE NATIVITY. 49 

the express injunction of heaven not to marry with 
idolaters. But the Lord overruled it in this in- 
stance for good, and made it the means of bring- 
ing to the knowledge of the truth a Moabit ; )ss 
woman, and uniting her to the ancestry of David 
as an indispensable link in the genealogy of 
Christ. Only a few years elapsed before the two 
sons, Mahlon and Ghilion, were cut off, and their 
wives became widows. Naomi now resolved to 
leave the land of her sorrows, and return to her 
pious kindred and acquaintance in Judea. Her 
daughters-in-law determined to accompany her 
at least a part of the journey. When they had 
proceeded some distance, the venerable woman, 
anxious to save them from fatigue, admonished 
them to return, each to her mother's home. The 
pious Ruth continued to cleave to her, adding, 
"Entreat me not to leave thee; for where thou 
goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy 
God my God." With such gushings of affection 
it were cruel on the part of Naomi to say another 
word to dissuade her. They accordingly traveled 
on together, ruminating upon the events of the 
past, and conflicting with apprehensions of the 



50 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

future — behind them the graves they loved, and 
before them a dark uncertain. They arrived in 
Bethlehem some time about the end of summer, 
when the fields were waving with the various 
products of the earth, and the golden grain, and 
the tasseled corn, and the verdant grass bespoke 
the wisdom and goodness of God, " Who causeth 
grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the ser- 
vice of man." Here the character of Euth shone 
forth in truth and loveliness. Though accustomed 
to rank and affluence, she entered the fields as a 
gleaner, and trained her delicate hands to the 
rough usage of a day-laborer. Boaz, who was a 
mighty man of wealth, and of the family of Elim- 
eleeh, saw her with the gleaners; and on being 
told the relation she sustained to Naomi, and her 
attachment to the people of God, resolved to take 
her as his wife : and thus the beautiful gleaner 
of the fields of Bethlehem became the great-grand- 
mother of the king of Israel ; and the family of 
Elimelech, which was on the border of extinction, 
merged from gloom into splendor, and shone on- 
ward through all the lineage of David, till it blend- 
ed with the glory that appeared over the plains of 
Bethlehem, when the chorus of angels was poured 



THE NATIVITY. 51 

on the midnight air, because the Saviour was 
cradled there in homeless solitude. If Ruth had 
acted as did Orpah, and returned to Moab, it is 
difficult to conceive how such sublime results 
could have been brought about. Upon the single 
point of her adherence to Eaomi seemed to rest 
the comprehensive nature of the Christian Dis- 
pensation. The course she pursued can only be 
accounted for as the influence of principle; while 
He who sees the end from the beginning, deter- 
mined to take this Gentile woman into the genea- 
logical roll of the Saviour's pedigree, and give 
her the reward of her devotion in. becoming the 
mother " of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, 
who was the father of David." 

If the property of Boaz was kept secure, and 
handed down successively to the possession of each 
family respectively, then we have something like 
tangible proof that the fields on which Ruth 
was accustomed to glean were the same identical 
acres over which David led his father's sheep when 
he was a shepherd boy — the same fields over 
which he was casting his eye when he penned 
that beautiful Psalm, " When I consider thy heav- 
ens, the work of thy fingers," &c. — the same 



52 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

fields that furnished him with the smooth pebble 
stone when he went forth to meet Goliath, and 
the same fields where the shepherds- were watch- 
ing their flocks when Christ was born. 

The promise was made to David about a thou- 
sand years before the Advent, that a son of his 
should possess universal empire. " He shall have 
dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto 
the ends of the earth." "All kings shall fall 
down before him : all nations shall serve him. 
In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abund- 
ance of peace so long as the moon endureth." 
This did not apply to Solomon, though he was 
king in Jerusalem — his dominion vast — his reign 
pacific — his fame world-wide : and peace, and plen- 
ty, and the law's protection made gold like brass, 
and silver sheckels like stones of the street. There 
came a time when that Hebrew monarch gave his 
countenance to idolatry, and brought a blight over 
the Jewish commonwealth. The sun no longer 
smiled in Israel's sky. There was a dark discom- 
fort in the air — the people murmured — the ways 
of Zion mourned — the kingdom became rent, 
and the twelve tribes of Israel were carried away 
into captivity. Yet wonderful was the wisdom 



THE NATIVITY. 53 

which prevented them from losing their national- 
ity, and kept them a race distinct — wonderful the 
providence which, while ten of the ■ tribes were 
lost, protected the family of Judah, and made sure 
the captives' return to Zion with songs of rejoic- 
ing — wonderful the goodness which brought in 
the Saviour incarnate when the world was at its 
greatest need, and the Romans had consolidated 
the languages of the earth, and constructed their 
arterial roads to transmit the tidings with the 
wings of the wind — wonderful the faithfulness 
which arranged that when the mission of Christ 
was accomplished, the Jews should be punished 
for their unbelief by their dispersion into all the 
world, denying all their records, and " making 
it utterly impossible that another Son of David 
should be born in David's town." 

The birth of Jesus Christ coincides beautifully 
with ancient prediction as to time and locality. 
The last blessing of Jacob to his sons contained 
the prediction, that the coming Saviour should 
not exceed the time during which the descend- 
ants of Judah should continue a united people, 
and be governed by their own laws. The proph- 
ets Haggai and Malachi measured the time with 



54 THE PREIOUS GIFT. 

equal precision in reference to the temple. " Be- 
hold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare 
the way before me : and the Lord whom ye seek 
shall suddenly come to His temple, even the mes- 
senger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : be- 
hold He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts." 
" And the glory of this latter house shall be greater 
than that of the former. 50 Need we clearer proof 
that the Saviour was to make His appearance in 
the second temple, and to grace and dignify it 
with His presence ? — that He was to come during 
the continuance of the kingdom of Judah, and 
immediately subsequent to the prophet Malachi. 
The time as revealed to the prophet Daniel was 
just seventy weeks from the edict to rebuild the 
Holy City, after the Babylonian captivity. " Sev- 
enty weeks are determined upon thy people, and 
upon thy holy city." (Dan. ix. 24, 25, 26, 27.) 
Reckoning a day to mean a year would be four 
hundred and ninety years to the commencement 
of the Christian era. At the expiration of this 
period Christ came ; the sceptre had departed 
from Judah, and the last remnant of the greatness 
of Israel was debased into a province of Syria. 
This was what St. Paul calls the fulness of time — 



THE NATIVITY. 55 

tlie Augustan age, and the best adapted for intro- 
ducing the Saviour and His gospel. The world 
was at peace. The wars of long centuries had 
ceased. And the minds of men had leisure to 
listen to His teachings, and decide whether He 
was the true Messiah or not. Both Jews and 
Gentiles had political motives to urge them to 
this. The Jews were under the Roman yoke, and 
looked forward to the Messiah as their Deliverer. 
He was a bright star in their horizon ; and they 
were prepared to scrutinize His character with 
the nicest accuracy. The heads of the Roman 
government were also jealous of losing any por- 
tion of their influence, and they would conse- 
quently investigate his credentials with the closest 
vigilance. The two parties had been ably disci- 
plined for the task by the system of argumenta- 
tion that had been introduced, and which admitted 
nothing without proof. Christianity, therefore, 
threw down the gauntlet, and challenged research. 
The collisions and disputes that ensued served to 
rub the diadem into brightness, and to manifest 
to the world that Christ was certainly He that 
should come, and that they need not look for 
another. 



56 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

The delay of the Advent four thousand years 
was because there was no other epoch so favora- 
ble. Only a few centuries before the nations of 
the earth were in such a state of internal antag- 
onism, that the inhabitants of one country could 
not cross over the frontiers and sojourn, even for 
a short time, in another. But owing to the con- 
quests of Alexander, and afterwards of the Csesars, 
the whole civilized world became consolidated 
into one empire, and an appeal to Caesar was 
deemed a sufficient protection in almost every 
capital and village of the habitable globe. It was 
therefore a time when Christianity would tell 
upon the world with the greatest possible empha- 
sis. Another important consideration was the 
prevalency of the Greek language. This was now 
spoken by so many cultivated nations that a truth 
uttered in Greek would find an echo everywhere, 
while the same truth, if spoken in Hebrew, would 
scarcely be understood beyond the limits of Judea. 
Hence the wisdom of the arrangement which 
deferred the Incarnation till the enemies of the 
Gospel had prepared the means for embodying 
its truths in the most expressive and permanent 
shape, so that they mi^ht be proclaimed with the 



THE NATIVITY. 57 

greatest ease ; be understood by the greatest num- 
ber, and reach the utmost limits of the human 
family. 

It is no less remarkable that the same restrictive 
process which fixed on a particular nation, the 
nation of the Jews — a particular tribe, the tribe 
of Judah — a particular family, the family of David; 
and a particular virgin, the virgin Mary, should 
determine, also, that the little town of Bethlehem 
should be the predestined and distinguished local- 
ity. "And thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou 
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out 
of thee shall He come forth unto me that shall be 
ruler in Israel." It was indeed little among the 
thousands of its neighbors, remarkable neither 
for the elegance of its buildings, nor the com- 
merce of its people, nor the number of its inhab- 
itants, but aggrandized by the promise of an event 
that should make it illustrious in the annals of 
eternity. 

And now that the time has come to manifest 
the Godhead in human form, where are Joseph 
and Mary ? Where is the reputed father of our 
Lord, and where the blessed among women ? 
They are away off in yonder village of Nazareth, 



58 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

in the province of Galilee, dwelling together in 
rural seclusion, and waiting with expectation the 
event desired of all nations. They repair to 
the synagogue to hear the law and the prophets, 
and sing the songs of Zion; and the soul of Mary, 
encouraged by the announcement of the angel, 
rises to heaven in the tuneful inspiration of her 
own splendid Magnificat, " My soul doth magnify 
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of 
His handmaiden ; for behold, from henceforth all 
generations shall call me blessed. For He that 
is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy 
is His name." Marvelous, as if by the special 
decree of heaven, the Roman Emperor now de- 
termines to take a census of all the people in his 
dominions, and requires them to appear for en- 
rollment at the head-quarters of their respective 
families. The lineal descendants of David must 
present themselves in David's city. Joseph and 
Mary must therefore undertake a journey to Beth- 
lehem. The city was full. There was much buzz 
and excitement. They could obtain no accommo- 
dation, either at a public inn, or in a private lodg- 
ing. And, weak and weary, they were glad to 



THE NATIVITY. 59 

avail themselves of the humble retirement of a 
stable. And so it was that while they were there 
" the days were accomplished that she should be 
delivered. And she brought forth her first born 
son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and 
laid Him in a manger." That new born babe 
was Christ the Lord — that infant was the royal 
Saviour — that cradle contained heaven's greatest 
gift — earth's brightest benediction. There lay 
the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace — the Omnipotent Creator and 
upholder of all things — the Resurrection and the 
Life — the embodiment of all the attributes of 
Deity — the Light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
the glory of His people Israel. There was that ma- 
jestic Being whom all heaven adore — whom all 
powers obey — whom every eye shall see — to whom 
every knee shall bow. 

Cold on His cradle the dew-drops are shining ; 
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall ; 
Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining, 
Maker and Monarch, and Saviour of all." 

Sweeter and softer strains never fell on the ears 
of humanity, than when angels in the splendor 
of that memorable night sang, " Glory to God 



60 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will 
towards men." They cheer the spirit of the faint, 
and stir the hopes of the disconsolate, disposing 
us to pray, " Evermore sing us this song." The 
tune, so musical, was the earnest of a future and 
glorious harmony; the prelude to a grand and 
universal chorus. We must not suppose the an- 
them was meant to be construed simply in the 
light of a prayer, Glory be to God — Peace be on 
earth, and good- will be to men ; but it affirms such 
to be already the case ; not indeed ful>y and final- 
ly, but in principle and in the bud, limited and 
repressed at present, but gradually unfolding. 
There is more of God revealed in that angelic 
ascription, " Glory to God in the highest," than 
in the sky and the earth together. It is a passage 
so grand, that if the very stars were its syllables, 
and the concave of heaven its pages, they would 
be altogether inadequate to express the grandeur 
of its truth. Astronomy, Botany, Philosophy, 
Science and Literature ought not to be mentioned 
in the same breath with it. It tells us of mercy 
in the highest, truth in the highest, love in the 
highest, power in the highest ; and all these scat- 
tered rays combine in one focus, Glory to God in 



THE NATIVITY. 61 

the highest — Glory in the highest strains — in the 
highest heavens — by the highest angels, and by 
the highest number of saints. 

The next note in the song announces peace on 
earth — peace to assuage the angry passions of 
men ; to tranquilize their troubled spirits, and , 
to induce a feeling of amity and concord that 
shall lead them to dwell together in love and 
unity. The olive branch of peace needs only to 
be waved over the nations of the earth, and the 
demon of war shall die; the temple of Janus 
shall be closed; the sword shall be put into its 
scabbard, and a voice louder than a thousand 
thunders shall be heard above the tumults of the 
world, Peace, be still. Only let Ohrist be uni- 
versally recognized, loved and adored, and earth 
shall enjoy a peace such as it never had before; 
its holy current will rush through every channel ; 
its pure waters shall allay every passion ; its 
presence calm every storm. That cold avalanch 
which now lies heavy and chill upon the heart of 
shivering humanity shall be removed, and earth 
once more look beautiful and bright. 

The most consoling note of all is, good-will 
to men — not good- will to the, angels that sinned ; 



62 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

to tlie spirits that fell, but good- will to men — good- 
will to men in the hour of penitence and sorrow 
— good-will to men in the season of affliction — 
good-will to men in the solemn article of death — 
good- will to men in the solemn scenes of judg- 
ment — good-will to men through the ages of 
eternity. 

But for this announcement of good will, the 
natural suspicion of our hearts would have led us 
to expect just the contrary. We should have 
feared that Christ was coming to call us to an 
account for our sins, and to vindicate His violated 
law. But " God sent not His Son into the world 
to condemn the world, but that the world through 
Him might be saved." The first appearance of 
the angel to the shepherds to announce His ad- 
vent created consternation and alarm. They were 
sore afraid. And it was not till he had gained 
their confidence, and overcome their fears and ap- 
prehensions, that they listened with joy to the mul- 
titude of the heavenly host. The Shepherds now 
said, " Let us go even to Bethlehem, and see this 
thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath 
made known to us." The Shepherds were prob- 
ably among the number of persons who were 



THE NATIVITY. 63 

looking for redemption in Jerusalem. Perhaps 
at that very moment they were silently musing 
when the kingdom of God should come, sighing 
in the language of David, " that the salvation 
of God were come out of Zion ! When God 
bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob 
shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." They 
delayed not to put their purpose into execution. 
They went to Bethlehem, and told Joseph and 
Mary what it was that brought them. They ex- 
plained the angels' visit — caught a glimpse of the 
new born king, and went home praising the Lord 
for the abundance of His mercy. Never after 
could they forget those plains. They would tread 
them as hallowed ground. When they slept, it 
would be in expectation of receiving some fresh 
revelation. And starting up in the stillness of 
night, they would listen to imaginary sounds, 
fancying that an serial orchestra was floating by. 
Gaze on the amazing scene of Deity incarnate. 
Ponder over the wondrous exhibition of Kedeem-. 
ing love. Fear not to believe in Jesus too soon, 
nor to rejoice in Him too much. Let the love of 
God your Saviour flow in a full tide upon your 
cold and wintry souls. Open your hearts to re- 



64 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

ceive Him, and it will make your feelings happy, 
and your dispositions new. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SONG OF ANGELS. 

The sentiment of the Apostle, that the love of 
Christ passeth knowledge, is a truth to which 
every renewed mind will yield a cheerful assent. 
It has heights which cannot he scaled — depths 
which cannot be fathomed — breadths which can- 
not be measured, and lengths which cannot be 
told. The tenderest exhibition that we have 
of it is in the work which He came to accom- 
plish. Visiting us in our low estate of degrada- 
tion and misery, His mission is fraught with the 
liveliest interest, whether considered in reference 
to the Godhead, as unfolding the brightest display 
of the Divine perfections, or as securing to the 
millions of the human family the blessings which 
are to be enjoyed through the ages of eternity. 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 65 

It develops emotions of far deeper intensity than 
any that are comprised in the sacrifices that men 
are wont to make to secure the objects of their 
aspiration. Almost everywhere persons are to 
be met with who are willing to travel far for 
worldly gain, and to expose themselves to danger 
and death in the accumulation of wealth. 

But Jesus came from the far heavens to this sin 
stained earth, and though "rich, yet for our sakes 
became poor, that we, through His poverty, might 
be made rich." Some travel far to obtain fame 
and distinction. The Saviour made Himself of 
no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a 
servant. Some visit distant countries for the 
improvement of their health, and the prolongation 
of their lives. Christ gave Himself up unto 
death, the death of the cross, that He might be a 
full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of 
the world. The words, "Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward 
men," embody the song that was sung by a choir 
of angels on the joyful occasion of His nativity. 
Sweeter and softer strains never fell on the ears 
of humanity. They cheer the spirits of the faint, 
and stir the hopes of the disconsolate, disposing 



66 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

us to pray, Evermore sing us this song. It was 
first heard in delightful echoes on the plains of 
Bethlehem; and the tune then started was the 
earnest of a future and glorious harmony — the 
prelude to a grand and universal chorus. The 
anthem was not meant to be construed simply in 
the light of a prayer, Glory be to God — Peace be 
on earth — Good-will be to men, but it aflirms such 
to be already the case. Not indeed fully and 
finally, but in the principle and in the bud — lim- 
ited and repressed at present, but gradually un- 
folding. And when the Sun of Eighteousness 
shall arise and shine in vertical splendor, the glory 
shall be unshrouded, the peace unbroken, and the 
still small voice of Bethlehem swell into the voice 
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, 
saying, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth." 

We recognize in this song of the angels the 
consecutive and dependent notes; the brightness 
of the Divine glory, and the excellency of Divine 
influence. 

I. The first note in the song is the Brightness of the 
Divine Glory. It is recorded of the shepherds 



THE SONG OP ANGELS. 67 

who were keeping watch, over the flocks by night, 
that the glory of the Lord shone around them. 
These shepherds were probably among the num- 
ber of those who were looking for redemption 
in Jerusalem, and may have been conversing 
together at this particular juncture, when the 
Kingdom of God should come; sighing in the 
language of David, " that the salvation of God 
were come out of Zion;" when lo, suddenly and 
unexpectedly, an angel appeared to announce the 
desired intelligence; and a multitude of the heav- 
venly hosts expressed their joy in the chorus, 
" Glory to God in the highest." 

The most absorbing thought in the minds of 
angels is God's glory. They look at everything 
in relation to this. The rescue of perishing sin- 
ners from everlasting death they conceive to~he 
the noblest manifestation of glory, demanding 
glory in the highest strains, glory among the 
highest beings, glory in the highest heavens, and 
glory from the whole universe of God, in the 
highest possible manner. It is very probable that 
up to the time of Christ's birth the angels had 
only obscure intimations of the plan of redemp- 
tion. The cherubim who bended over the ark 



68 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

seemed to denote by their attitude a desire to 
look into those things that God had not full} 7 
revealed to them of His great purpose of mercy. 

St. Paul speaks of the manifold wisdom of God, 
now made known by the Church unto the powers 
and principalities in heavenly places, as something 
to which the highest created intelligences were 
strangers, till it was made known to them at the 
Incarnation. Then it was that the secret burst 
upon angels and archangels, that Deity had 
united itself to humanity, and those heavenly 
beings at once made the amazing discovery an 
occasion of loud ascription of praise.. 

The infinite and eternal Jehovah could not be 
expected, in a work of such astonishing magni- 
tude, to propose anything short of His own glory 
as the ultimate and final result of His designs. 
And just in proportion as finite minds are con- 
formed to His will, and impressed with a sense 
of His preeminence, they will be solicitous in all 
their actions, whether they eat or drink, or what- 
ever they do, to do all to His glory. The glory 
of the creature is usually promoted by adding to 
him something which he does not possess ; the 
glory of Deity by making known what He is. To 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 69 

give glory to God, therefore, is to adore Him for 
the manifestation of His love. 

"When Moses prayed, "I beseech Thee, show 
me Thy glory," he acknowledged the self-existent 
splendor of the Almighty, independently of His 
creatures, and craved a more enlarged development 
of the divine effulgence. He had already seen some 
visible manifestations of it at Horeb — at the Red 
Sea — in the falling manna — in the riven rock, and 
in the cloudy, fiery pillar; but he felt as though 
each disclosure only increased his desire for an- 
other. He therefore sought a yet further discov- 
ery. And God said to him, "I will make my 
goodness pass before thee;" and God passed by 
and proclaimed His Name, His glory and His 
goodness. These are all convertible terms that 
signify one and the same thing. They are so 
many separate rays that constitute the bright 
flame, too dazzling for mortal eyes to look upon 
otherwise than apart. 

The glory of the Divine goodness is specially 
displayed in the work of redeeming love ; good- 
ness, whether we consider the objects of it to be 
sinners, rebels and enemies, or the means by 
which their deliverance from wrath is effected, and 



70 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

their restoration to happiness procured. We 
would certainly admire the goodness of a mon- 
arch, stooping from his throne of unbounded roy- 
alty and power, surrounded with all the insignia 
of despotic authority, covering continents with his 
armies, and oceans with his fleets, and surpassing 
in the grandeur of his achievements the most 
splendid exploits of ancient and modern times. 
We would laud and magnify him if he were to 
pass from the splendor of his court and the ra- 
diance of his royalty, with all the meltings of pity 
and compassion, to relieve a single family bowed 
down with wretchedness and despair. That single 
act would redound more to his glory than the 
most illustrious triumphs of his policy, or the 
most splendid success of his arms. Yet what 
a poor, paltry act of benevolence this, when com- 
pared with the love of God in giving us His S on. 
The Saviour had existed from all eternity in His 
own uncreated essence perfectly happy without us 
or our services. He had under His control a uni- 
verse of worlds so vast, that if the whole system 
of which we form a part were at once to be anni- 
hilated, it would be no more felt than the sub- 
traction of a blade of grass from the verdure of 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 71 

the fields, or the fall of a leaf from the foliage of 
the forest. Yet when man, who is but dust and 
ashes, rebelled against His supreme majesty; 
when he ventured to raise his puny arm against- 
One who could have crushed him, the compas- 
sionate Saviour resolved to interpose for his res- 
cue — resolved to visit this insignificant spot in 
the realms of being; to assume the body of man, 
that is a worm ; to descend to the lowest recesses 
of sorrow and woe ; to die an ignominious death 
upon the cross ; to make an atonement for sin, and 
reconciliation for iniquity, and to raise countless 
multitudes to happiness sublimer than that of 
Eden, and to honors more exalted than those of 
the angels; to raise them, indeed, to the very 
throne of Deity, the All and in All. Was ever love 
so disinterested, stupendous, infinite ? The Father 
smiled at the Advent with inexpressible tender- 
ness. The groans of creation were hushed into 
a momentary stillness. Angels rested from their 
customary employment, and presented themselves 
as admiring spectators or the wonderful scene. 
And man that was a rebel was pardoned — man 
that was a wanderer was reclaimed — man that 
was condemned was absolved, and man that was 



72 THE PRECIOUS GEFT. 

accursed was redeemed. "Blessing and honor 
and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever." Con- 
spicuous in this mighty transaction is the justice 
of the angelic ascription, "Glory be to God in the 
highest." 

The attribute of Divine wisdom is most beauti- 
fully unfolded in the same wonderful economy. 
Christ is expressly called the wisdom of God; 
and the Gospel which He proclaimed the wisdom 
of God in a mystery. The Gospel is a revelation 
from Him. It reflects His likeness, and directs 
us to Him, in whom are all the treasures of wis- 
dom and knowledge. Every page of it shines in 
His light. Every text is a diamond radiant with 
His brightness. We see wisdom in the constitu- 
tion of Christ's person, so that while as man He 
could suffer affliction and death — as God He could 
vanquish the destroyer, and become enthroned and 
glorified. We see wisdom in such an "adjustment 
of the Divine perfections with the purposes of 
mercy, that we are healed by the Saviour's 
wounds, crowned by the Saviour's cross, enriched 
by the Saviour's poverty, and glorified by the Sav- 
iour's disgrace. We see wisdom in the arrange- 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 73 

ment that renders God's displeasure against sin 
more apparent in pardoning than in punishing it, 
and in humbling the sinner's pride by those very 
considerations that tend to inspire his confidence, 
so that while he confesses himself unworthy of 
the least of God's mercies, he is encouraged to 
claim a participation in the greatest of His favors. 
This privilege alone affords ample scope for the 
exclamation, " Glory to God in the highest." 

Nor can we fail to discover, in this magnificent 
enterprise, a most wonderful development of the 
glory of the Divine power. We usually associate 
the power of God with the formation of the fabric 
of the universe, and the revolution of the planet- 
ary systems of which the universe is composed. 
But all the manifestations of Omnipotence in the 
works of creation and providence are like the 
moon-beams, when compared with that which is 
presented us in the mediation of Christ. What 
though His birth was humble; was there not 
power in the commotion that was everywhere 
visible, causing all the acts of free agents to be 
subservient to the great purpose of the Incarna- 
tion? What though His death was ignominious; 
was there not power exerted amid the agonies of 



74 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

the crucifixion, in the reclamation of a blasphem- 
ing malefactor, and the reception of his renovated 
spirit to paradise as a trophy of grace ? Was 
there not power when He bore for us the burden 
of that wrath, which would otherwise have sunk 
us to the lowest and deepest abyss; when He abol- 
ished death, and destroyed him that had the pow- 
er of death, that is the devil, and delivered them 
who through fear of death, were all their lifetime 
subject to bondage ? Was there not power in the 
astonishing success that uniformly attended the 
first preaching of the Gospel, and that caused the 
banner of the cross to be elevated above the 
palace of the Caesars ? And is there not power in 
the emancipation from the thralldom of corruption 
of the thousands of our race who are now conse- 
crating all their faculties, and all the duration of 
their being, to the utterance of the Redeemer's 
praise ? 0, where is the individual who, if he give 
the subject only a cursory consideration, is not 
prepared, with overwhelming gratitude, to chime 
in with the angelic ascription, " Glory to God in 
the highest." 

That one beautiful passage, " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son," re- 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 75 

veals more of God's wisdom and power and love 
than the earth and the sky together. It is so 
grand, that if the very stars were its syllables, 
and the concave of heaven its pages, they would 
be altogether inadequate to express the grandeur 
of its truth. It is so simple that a child can un- 
derstand it; and so rich that eternity will not 
exhaust its fulness. The arts and sciences ought 
not to be spoken of in the same breath with it. 
And there is something strangely wrong in any 
heart that can hear such tidings enunciated with- 
out a responsive thrill of ecstacy and joy. The 
theme summons your contemplation to an exhibi- 
tion of mercy in the highest; truth in the highest; 
justice in the highest; love in the highest; power 
in the highest; and all these scattered rays com- 
bine in one focus of glory to God in the highest — 
glory in the highest heavens, by the highest 
angels, and by the highest number of saints. 

II. We will now turn to the excellency of Divine 
influence. " Peace on earth." This was never 
more needed than in the present troubled state of 
the nations. We are thankful for anything that 
transpires in the course of our pilgrimage which 
makes a momentary lull. Wars, and rumors of 



76 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

wars, battles and battle-fields are the staple of 
history. The most hideous of the train of sin is 
this gigantic evil that afflicts our world. It has 
immolated, from first to last, more individuals than 
are now to be found on the surface of the globe. 
But for a restraining providence human society 
must long since have become extinct; the last 
man would have expired, and God would have 
been despoiled of the revenue of His praise. 
The peace, so essential to assuage the angry pas- 
sions of men, is the peace of the Prince of Peace ; 
the peace that is inspired by truth, and sustained 
by righteousness. This it is that tranquilizes the 
troubled spirit, transforms the lion into a lamb, 
and induces a feeling of amity and concord that 
leads brethren to dwell together in love and unity. 
One of the fundamental principles of the Gospel 
is, " Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
And its great, unalterable maxim is, "If thine 
enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him 
drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of 
fire on his head." Only let the spirit of this 
Scriptural rule be generally exemplified; let men 
act it out in deference to Divine authority, and 
the demon of war shall die; the temple of Janus 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 77 

shall be closed, the sword shall be put into its 
scabbard, the olive branch of peace shall be waved 
over the earth, and a voice, in soothing undertones, 
shall be heard, subduing the tumults of the world, 
"Peace, be still." We know of nothing more 
alien from the pacific principles of the Gospel 
than storm and tempest. The Christ-loving dis- 
ciple in whom the spirit of the Master breathes, 
yearns for a quiet element as the earnest of his 
coming rest. And so far as the blessed message 
of pardon from the skies is fully received and 
enjoyed, war with God and man will end, and 
peace will reign, such as earth saw never. Its 
holy current will rush through every channel, its 
pure waters allay every passion, its presence calm 
every storm, and the turbulent elements of our 
race repose in the calm serenity of a summer's 
eve. That cold avalanch which now lies heavy 
and chill upon the heart of shivering humanity 
needs only to be removed, and the fallen world 
will once more look beautiful and bright. Glory 
will shine resplendent on every mountain-top, 
sparkle in every rolling star, sound in the loud 
thunder, and murmur in the melodies of the pass- 
ing breeze. All creation will resemble one grand 



78 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

oratorio, causing the key-note that sounded in the 
chimes of Bethlehem to swell into one glorious 
anthem of adoration and praise. In thought and 
word, in affection and action, the peace of God 
shall pulsate, which passeth all understanding. 

ISTeed we wonder that the peace legacy which 
Christ left with His disciples, when He said, 
"Peace I leave with you," is the subject of one 
of the most prominent invocations in our Church 
service ? There is a Collect for morning and 
evening, very appropriately entitled a Collect for 
Peace; and it is much more comprehensive of 
meaning than the majority of worshipers have 
any idea of. There is a rich treasure underlying 
the prayer for outward peace from worldly ene- 
mies, that has specific reference to that inward 
peace, which leads to life eternal. Try and follow 
me in your reflections one moment, while I quote 
the one for Morning Prayer to be used immedi- 
ately after the Collect for the day. " God, who 
art the Author of peace, and lover of concord; 
in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life ; 
Whose service is perfect freedom ; Defend us, thy 
humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies, 
that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 79 

fear the power of any adversaries, through, the 
might of Jesus Christ our Lord." The humble 
Christian, lifting his heart to God in this formula, 
prays with the spirit, and with the understanding; 
and the Author of peace and lover of concord so 
fills him with joy and peace in believing, that his 
peace flows as a river, and his righteousness as 
the waves of the sea. 

The Peace Collect for the Evening is, if possible, 
still more explicit. It appeals to God as the 
source of all holy desires, good counsels and just 
works, and then asks that He would give unto 
His servants that peace which the world cannot 
give; that our hearts may be set to obey His 
commandments; and also, that by Him, we, being 
defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass 
our time in rest and quietness, through the merits 
of Jesus Christ our Saviour. It can never be ad- 
mitted that a Christian man can heartily offer 
such invocations to his Father in heaven, and 
then court the tempest and the hurricane. The 
grace of God, exercising a hallowed influence upon 
his heart, makes him a son of peace; disposes 
him to seek peace ; to follow after the things 
which make for peace ; to live in peace ; to stay 



80 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

his mind on God, and enjoy perfect peace. The 
sublime sweetness of this mental composure is 
called by the Apostle of the Gentiles, " The peace 
which passeth all understanding." It is a calm 
in the midst of a storm. Were you standing on 
the sea-shore, and saw a gale on the ocean, the 
winds blowing a hurricane, the lightnings flashing, 
the thunders roaring, and the billows of the deep 
lashed into a foaming; fury, forming caverns in 
appearance, and graves in reality; were you to 
witness these effects you would be at no loss to 
account for the phenomena. You would natural- 
ly attribute the troubling of the waters to the 
violence of the wind. But if, in the midst of all 
this war and rage of the elements, the ocean 
should suddenly show a peaceful bosom, perfectly 
smooth and glassy, not a ripple to be seen, it 
would exhibit a peace which passeth under- 
standing ; a stillness which you could not explain. 
And it would, in this respect, afford a beautiful 
emblem of the peace of the Christian ; a calm 
within, while ail is tumult and storm without. 
As a most happy illustration from the pen of in- 
spiration, turn to that beautiful passage which 
closes the thirty-second chapter of the prophecies 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 81 

of Isaiah, from the seventeenth verse. " My peo- 
ple shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in 
sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, when 
it shall hail, coming down on the forest, and the 
city shall be low in a low place." 

The most consoling note in the angelic song is 
Good-will to men. ISTot good-will to the angel 
that sinned, to the spirits that fell, but good-will 
to men; to men who are invited and elevated 
to their vacant thrones. The Mediator, by obey- 
ing and dying in our stead, removed those sepa- 
rating causes which kept us far off from our Ma- 
ker. He did not indeed render us the objects of 
good-will, but made it honorable on the part of 
God to show us good- will consistent with His attri- 
butes, to deal with us as no longer enemies. It 
might, therefore, be accurately said when Christ 
was born, there was good- will toward men. The 
birth was the earnest of the world's redemption. 
It was virtually the same thing. God and man 
were now at peace ; and those who sometime 
were afar off were made nigh by the blood of 
Christ. 

The announcement of good-will to men is with- 
out limitation. It is not an offer made to some, 



82 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

and kept back from others. It appeals to all, 
without exception or reserve. It recognizes no 
outcast, but makes one comprehensive sweep, in- 
cluding the whole of our species ; all the individ- 
uals of all the families. There is no straitening 
with God — it all lies in the dark, cold and narrow 
suspicions that fill our own bosoms. The offer of 
good-will through Christ is to all and upon all 
them that believe. We wish to lodge this offer 
in your hearts. We wish to woo you into confi- 
dence. We wish to whisper peace and reconcili- 
ation to your souls. We wish to assure you, by 
the most convincing testimony, that all who will 
may come and drink of the water of life freely. 
As the Apostle Peter said to the assembled mul- 
titude on the day of Pentecost, Repent every one 
of you, so we are commissioned to say, Believe 
every one of you. Believe that Christ came not 
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Believe 
that Christ wishes to be gracious. Believe that 
a door is opened in heaven, and that you may find 
a blessed home in the bosom of your Father. 
Try and catch the tune of the angelic ascription, 
and you will sing it in the ways of the Lord, in 
all its sweetness. Ponder upon those passages of 



THE SONG OF ANGELS. 83 

Scripture that have a direct and immediate refer- 
ence to the wonderful exhibition of Redeeming 
love. Ponder upon the words, " God commend- 
eth His love toward us in that while we were yet 
sinners Christ died for us." Ponder upon the 
declaration, " God, Who is rich in mercy, for the 
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we 
were dead in sins, hath quickened us together 
with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and 
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus." Ponder upon the text, " Not by works 
of righteousness which we have done, but ac- 
cording to His mercy, He saves us, by the wash- 
ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the 
Holy Ghost." Think of the good-will of God 
to your souls, continued under all your infidelity 
and rebellion, and antipathy and resistance with 
which you spurned the proffers of His mercy 
before you became members of His family; and 
the waywardness and indifference that you have 
manifested since you professed to love Him. 
Think of the good- will of God to your infirmities 
and wants, and say, Lord, I will praise thee, 
for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger 
is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Think 



84 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

of the good- will of God in the season of penitence 
and sorrow and affliction; and let your light 
afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out 
for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. Think of the good-will of God in the 
solemn article of death, and confront the last 
enemy with the Resurrection song, " Death, 
where is thy sting ? Grave, where is thy vic- 
tory?" Think of the good-will of God in the 
solemn scenes of judgment, and anticipate the 
approving welcome, " "Well done good and faith- 
ful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
Think of the good-will of God to His people 
through a ceaseless eternity, and say, " To Him 
be glory and dominion for ever and ever." 

Thus you see, if we advert only to the surface 
of the subject, we are furnished with abundant 
reason why the Song of Angels should be our song 
to-day. Let the tongue that has till now been 
silent, chime in with the anthem of the heavenly 
hosts, and praise its Maker in the highest strains. 
Let the knee that has never been bent in prayer 
before, bend now. Let the obdurate and callous 
heart dissolve in penitence and love. Let the 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 85 

solemn thought dwell on the mind, The friend or 
the foe of Christ. — which am I ? 



CHAPTER V. 

CHRISTMAS DAY. 



To Christ gave all the prophets witness : Isaiah 
predicted His nativity with a comprehensive out- 
line of the glorious character that He should sus- 
tain, both in His humanity and divinity : " Unto 
us a child is born — unto us a son is given : the 
government shall be upon His shoulders, and His 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the 
Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince 
of Peace." The blessing had not been actually 
given when this prophecy was delivered — only 
expected — yet it is proclaimed as a real history, 
and the subject of present enjoyment. The holy 
seer, as he wrote it, was so rapturously exultant in 
the blessedness of the event, that purpose and 



86 THE PEECIOUS GIFT. 

execution, promise and accomplishment, seemed 
the same thing. With God there is nothing 
future — nothing past. His being is one continued 
now — I AM, is His name, and this is His memorial 
in all generations. He calleth things that be not 
as though they were, saying, my counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure. 

Through a long series of ages the pen of prophe- 
cy had pointed to the birth of Jesus with re- 
markable distinctness. It foretold that He should 
descend from a particular nation — the nation of 
the Jews ; from a particular Tribe — the Tribe of 
Judah; from a particular family — the family of 
David ; from a particular virgin — the virgin Mary. 
He was also to come forth out of Bethlehem; and 
in that small but favored town He made His 
appearance. "And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, 
though thou be little among the thousands of 
Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth that 
is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have 
been of old, from everlasting." It was indeed 
small among the thousands of its neighbors — 
remarkable neither for elegance, nor commerce, 
nor the number of its inhabitants ; but aggrand- 
ized, in the arrangements of Heaven, by an event 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 87 

which drew toward it a multitude of the heavenly 
host, who sang, " Glory to God in the Highest 
and on earth, peace, good-will toward men." 

Shepherds that night were in the fields watch 
ing their flocks. The glory of the Lord encom 
passed them. An embassy from the heavenly 
world communicated the blissful intelligence 
" Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, 
a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." The shep- 
herds hastened to the spot, and found the babe 
lying in a manger. The manger-cradled child 
was the child of promise, now clothed in the 
habiliments of humanity — the child of prophecy, 
who had verified the predictions of His birth in 
the minutest particular — the child of obscurity 
and poverty — the child of persecution and re- 
proach — the child of renown — the child of the 
Highest. There prevailed at that time in, the 
East a general expectation of the birth of some 
very extraordinary character. Balaam had an- 
nounced the Messiah under the image of a star. 
" There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a 
sceptre shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite 
the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children 
of Sheth." When an unaccustomed star crossed 



88 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

their field of vision, it arrested the notice of wise 
men who came from the East to Jerusalem, say- 
ing, " Where is He that is born king of the Jews? 
for we have seen His star in the East, and are 
come to worship Him." They appeared to under- 
stand the connection between the sign and the 
circumstance, or how could they have inferred 
from the celestial phenomenon that the king of 
the Jews was born ? The star was altogether 
supernatural ; and it is not improbable that while 
it engaged their attention, the Spirit of God im- 
pressed their hearts with a conviction of the rela- 
tion and design. These wise men were probably 
from Arabia or Chaldea, east of the Jordan. 
They were devout men — serious and reflecting 
men — men of a contemplative turn of mind, who 
had renounced idolatry, and devoted themselves 
to the worship of the Supreme Being. The object 
of their visit was to attest the birth of the illustri- 
ous personage, and do Him homage. And if 
they opened their treasures, and presented unto 
Him gifts, gold and frankincense, and myrrh, it 
was not more their grateful adoration, than the 
fulfilment of what David and the prophet Isaiah 
had declared, " The kings of Tarshish and of the 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 89 

isles shall bring presents : the kings of Sheba and 
Seba shall offer gifts. They shall bring gold and 
incense, and they shall show forth the praises of 
the Lord. " The Gentiles shall come to Thy light, 
and kings to the brightness of Thy rising." 

The people to whom He was immediately sent, 
were the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He 
came, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glo- 
ry of His people Israel. He took not on Him the 
nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. Good 
angels did not need His mediation, and bad ones 
were not permitted to share it. He became man 
that He might redeem man — one of us that He 
might rescue us from the ruins of the fall. 

The several gradations of human condition were 
open to His acceptance, and of these He chose 
the lowest. The varieties of earthly splendor 
were in His estimation only as so many degrees of 
littleness and insignificance. If He had come in 
the pomp of state, the multitude would have been 
debarred from His presence, and the minds of 
men divided between the attractions of earthly 
rank, and the claims of celestial truth ; but by 
assuming the low condition of the majority, He 
made Himself accessible to all, and put forth truth 



90 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

alone as the only object demanding tl^eir notice. 
When He came down from heaven, He came not 
to a throne, nor to a court, nor to ease and ele- 
gance, but to the cot of a poor carpenter. When 
He might have spoken to His Father, and had 
beside Him, in a moment, more than twelve le- 
gions of angels, He chose for His companions 
twelve poor fishermen. And when He hungered, 
instead of calling to His aid the stores of heaven, 
He partook, with His disciples, of their homely 
fare — " They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, 
and of a honey-comb." What a lesson does this 
teach us of the condescension of the Son of God ! 
What but love, pure, perfect and disinterested, 
could brook such a painful ordeal ? What stronger 
evidence need we that He was born for us, and 
for our salvation. The reduplication which occurs 
in the prediction, " Unto us a child is born — unto 
as a son is given," would seem to express the joint 
action of the Father and the Son: that while 
God so loved the world as to give His only begot- 
ten Son, the Son so loved us as to give Himself. 
Whichever way we take of it, it was compassion 
like a God. It comprised all gifts in one, and 
was so liberal as to preclude the possibility of its 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 91 

being ever said that God could give us more. 
" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to 
love one another." The rugged paths we tread 
would then be smoothed ; sunshine would fall on 
shady places; and calm and quiet would be the 
flow of life. " God is love ; and He that dwelletb 
in love dwelletb in God, and God in Him." Of 
the Empire of the Son of God Isaiah affirms, "the 
government shall be upon His shoulders." The 
ancients had a custom of representing Atlas with 
the world on his shoulder. The world, with its 
mighty apparatus, does actually rest for its sup- 
port on the Man Christ Jesus. " He supports 
all things by the word of His power." " He is 
Lord of all." Lord of all might, majesty and 
dominion — Lord of all worlds — Lord of all crea- 
tion — Lord of angels and archangels, and crea- 
tures animate and inanimate. " The Lord is king 
forever." His dominion is an everlasting domin- 
ion, and His kingdom is from generation to gen- 
eration. From age to age, and from sphere to 
sphere, His government moves on, " none can 
stay His hand, or say, what doest Thou ?" Look- 
ing dowix from the height of His holiness, He 
surveys, at a glance, the manifold movements of 



92 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

His creatures, and with one single volition, can 
aid or thwart their schemes as ma}^ seem to Him 
good. "It is He that determines concerning a 
nation, and concerning a people, to establish or 
to destroy; to enlarge or to diminish." If the 
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain 
thing; if the kings of the earth set themselves, 
and the rulers of the earth take counsel together 
against the Lord, and against His annointed, say- 
ing, " let us break their bands asunder, and cast 
away their cords from us, He that sitteth in the 
heavens shall laugh at them ; the Lord shall have 
them in derision. He will speak unto them in 
His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasuer." 
The reign of Christ is our solace in every vicissi- 
tude. IsTo matter if clouds and darkness are 
round about Him, " righteousness and judgment 
are the habitation of His seat." 

" Blessings abound where'er He reigns, 
The prisoner leaps to burst his chains ; 
The weary find eternal rest, 
And all the sons of want are blessed." 

This world is but a small fraction of His em- 
pire. The whole planetary system to which we 
belong is but a partial province of His govern- 



CHRISTMAS DAT. 93 

ment. There are other worlds, and other systems, 
the extent of which no measurement can calculate, 
and the number of which no arithmetic can com- 
pute, that are controled by the mysterious sway 
of the "Child born, the Son given." All are 
obedient to His behest, and are in His hands, as 
clay in the hands of the potter. 

The names of Christ are expressive and appro- 
priate. His Name shall be called "Wonderful, 
Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Fa- 
ther, the Prince of Peace. This glowing con- 
stellation of names is illustrative of the infinite 
superiority of His person and character over every 
other. 

"Wonderful was Christ in His Incarnation: 
" The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 
Wonderful in His humanity and divinity, com- 
bining in one person the finite and infinite — won- 
derful in His grandeur and humility — wonderful 
in His innocency and suffering — wonderful in His 
tenderness and severity — wonderful in His weak- 
ness and efliciency — wonderful in the blessings 
which He flung around Him. Wherever He 
went, disease and misery fled from His presence. 
Wherever He was expected the public way waa 



94 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

thronged with the helpless and the dying. Where 
He had passed, life, health and happiness distin- 
guished the path. The restored might be seen 
making trial of their new found powers. Jesu's 
voice was the first sound which many persons 
heard — His form the first sight which many beheld 
His name — the first word that many pronounced. 
The victims of sorrow everywhere besought Him, 
and never sought in vain. If the spiritual object of 
His mission had permitted the continuance of His 
abode on earth, He would have become the shrine 
at which all disease would have knelt, and the 
centre to which all suffering would have tended. 
The world of the afflicted would have gone to 
Him on a pilgrimage, and He would have healed 
them all. He is "glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders." 

The holy Jesus is Counselor, who gives counsel 
to men. He was Counselor with the Father in 
the work of creation ; and when all things were 
made by Him, and without Him was not anything 
made — Counselor with the Father, in the work 
of redemption, when in the divine and gracious 
counsels, He became the "Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world" — Counselor with the 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 95 

Father in the work of our sanctification, so that 
when " He ascended up on high, He led captivity 
captive, and received gifts for men, that the Lord 
God might dwell among them." The only wise 
God, our Saviour, in Him dwelleth all the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily. "With Him are all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. " Counsel is 
mine, 3 ' says He, " and sound wisdom, I have un- 
derstanding — I Wisdom dwell with prudence and 
find out knowledge of witty inventions." "The 
wisdom that cometh from above is pure and peace- 
able, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mer- 
cy and good fruits, without partiality and without, 
hypocrisy." The light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God shines resplendently in Christ. He 
is "the image of the invisible God, the brightness 
of the Father's glory, and the express image of 
His person." 

Christ is the Mighty God —the TTnderived, 
Essential, Infinite, Almighty, King of kings and 
Lord of Lords. Mighty to accomplish His de- 
signs — mighty to perform His counsel — mighty 
to redeem — mighty to save — mighty to save unto 
the uttermost — mighty to reclaim — no case too 
desperate— nothing too hard. Far as we have 



96 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

wandered from His counsels, there is yet hope 
concerning us if we are disposed to return — Deep- 
ly as we have plunged into the vortex of crime and 
ungodliness, the mighty God is able and willing 
to restore us — Exiles and outcasts as we have 
been, the arms of the loving Jesus are outstretch- 
ed to clasp us to His bosom and to His heart. 

11 Mighty God, while angels bless Thee, 
May we learn to lisp Thy Name ; 
Loed of men as well as angels, 
Thou art every creature's theme." 

Do we revere the parental character ? Christ 
is the Everlasting Father, or, as the Septuagint 
renders it, the Father of the everlasting age, or 
world to come. This is one of the most endear- 
ing relations under which we can think of Him. 
He has all the feeling, the affection and tender- 
ness of a father durable in His nature. His love 
is everlasting attachment; His tenderness ever- 
lasting sympathy ; His power everlasting protec- 
tion. The saints of olden time could look up to 
Him, and say, "Doubtless Thou art our Father, 
though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel 
acknowledge us not: Thou, Lord, art our 
Father, our Eedeemer, Thy .Name is from ever- 



CHRISTMAS DAT. 97 

lasting." " When my father, and my mother, for- 
sake me," said David, " then the Lord will take 
me up." "We look upon our earthly fathers and 
are reminded that, fondly as we may cling to 
them, they will die and leave us. The Lord's off- 
spring can never be orphans. He lives forever- 
more; and because He lives we shall live also. 
With a fatherly feeling, He appeals to the sensi- 
bilities of our hearts, and calls us His children 
"I will receive you," says He, " and will be a 
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and 
daughters." The Saviour is celebrated as the 
Father of the fatherless, in that splendid song of 
triumph which St. Paul quotes in reference to the 
ascension. Hence, the Lord's Prayer may be 
addressed to Christ, in all its parts. We can 
scarcely imagine that, when in answer to the re- 
quest of His disciples to teach them to pray, He 
composed and gave them a form, which should 
not include Himself as the object of their worship. 
It is a filial address of children to their Father, 
imploring the bestowment of blessings alike dear 
to Himself and to them. 

Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Christ procures 
peace; reveals peace; imparts peace. Peace of 



98 THE PRECIOUS GIFT. 

conscience ; peace of mind ; peace that passeth un- 
derstanding. " Great peace have all they who love 
His law." Peace is the legacy He bequeathed to 
us. " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give 
unto you." " The Lord blesseth His people out or 
Zion, and causeth them to see the good of Jerusa- 
lem, and peace upon Israel," and when the nations 
of the earth shall bow to Him, they shall learn war 
no more. Glory to God on high — on earth be peace. 

" Like circles widening round, 

Upon a clear blue rivef ; 
Orb after orb, the wondrous sound, 

Is echoed on forever." 

The theme of the Advent is one of overflowing 
consolation, and exquisite tenderness — wonder- 
fully realized in the issues of that night of nights, 
which ushered in that memorable morn. Receive 
in penitential faith, the loving Saviour to your lov- 
ing hearts, and this will be to you a Christmas- 
Day — a feast of the true Nativity — " Christ in 
you the hope of glory. 




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